City Council Land Use Committee Votes to Approve Amended NYU Expansion Plan

Today the City Council’s Land Use Committee voted 19 to 1 to approve an amended version of NYU’s massive Village expansion plan with minor modifications. The plan now goes to the full City Council for a vote on July 25th. The plan had the full support of Speaker Quinn and Councilmember Chin, in whose district it is located, which many Councilmembers cited when casting their vote in favor. In a press release issued by Speaker Quinn’s office and Councilmember Chin, they referred to the plan as one which “upholds the integrity of Greenwich Village” (read the release HERE).

Earlier this morning, GVSHP stood on the steps of City Hall with leaders of NYU faculty, NYU staff, NYU graduate workers, and a host of local community organizations calling upon the City Council to vote ‘NO,’ send this plan back to the drawing board, and consider alternatives rather than eliminating public open space, violating agreements under which NYU was given public land years ago, and vastly increasing the oversaturation of the Village with NYU facilities as this plan does. We were joined in the Council by Financial District community leaders who have spoken out against the NYU plan and urged the university to instead work with that community to find suitable locations for some of their facilities in the Financial District. With the Council’s vote, this feedback, and that of thousands of New Yorkers who urged the Council to reject the plan, was ignored.

If you would like to urge the rest of the Council to vote against the plan approved today, click HERE.

Make no mistake, however – the fight is not over. The full Council must still vote on the plan; and while the Council almost always follows the vote of the land use committee, GVSHP and NYU faculty will be reviewing all options available to us should the Council approve the plan.

If you would like to support GVSHP’s continuing efforts to fight the NYU plan, and our other preservation and education efforts, click HERE.

Thank you for your ongoing support of our efforts, and we will have more news soon.